Kootenai

When you go with non-birders to northern Idaho for a wedding - well, let me just say that birding does not get done. 

Kootenai NWR was only about 8 miles from our motel.  So I had family members drop me off ... that is, me and my 15 year old niece.  Shall I say that her chief interest in life is boys and not much else.  Normal, of course, but a drag when she was with me at Kootenai.  Within 30 minutes she was bored.  To say that my visit was truncated would be putting it mildly.  

Fortunately, Kootenai is a place of great beauty that even a recalcitrant teenager cannot upend.

Above and below:  unidentified dragonflies.

Above and below:  horribly backlit photos of the first spreadwing I've ever found.  Will remain unidentified.  

All weekend long, the sky and clouds were spectacular.

Twelve-spotted skimmer

Savannah sparrows

Close-up of large ant hill

I was surprised there would be an ant hill of this size in Idaho, i.e., so far north.  Seems almost central or south American size - whatever that means.

Purple berries.  I saw these in several places and wondered if birds eat them.

Kootenai River

Savannah sparrow on the road

Cormorant - has to be double-crested.

Architecturally very beautiful barn.  Though I didn't know when I saw it for the first time and took this photo, it turned out to be the property where my nephew's outdoor wedding reception was being held the following evening - on the property of his new wife's parents home.

Here it is again the following evening when we were at the reception. My nephew's wife's grandfather, originally from Sweden, built the barn.  

Taken the evening of the reception perched in a tree across the road from the barn.

We parked our cars in a harvested wheat field.

View from the bride's and groom's wedding party table.

Just down the road from the entrance of Kootenai NWR, this was probably the nicest wedding reception I have ever attended.